To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his Answer of 7 July 2003, Official Report, column 622W, on excluded pupils, if he will publish the responses of local education authorities to his Department's letter of October 2002. [125770]

[holding answer 14 July 2003]: The responses received were not in a form suitable for publication. However, all Local Education Authorities confirmed that they were able to achieve the target of providing full-time education far all permanently excluded pupils by September 2002.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education, employment or training in each year since 1997 were (a) excluded from school and (b) in care, broken down by (i) gender, (ii) ethnic minority and (iii) local education authority. [124270]

[holding answer 8 July 2003]: The percentages of young people not in education, employment or training (MEET) who were excluded from school by (i) gender and (ii) ethnicity are set out in the following table.